Americans Panic Buying for Gasoline / U.S. Labour Force Continues to Recover

According to a report from Canada’s Lohas.com on Thursday (May 13), last week, the Colonial Pipeline, the largest oil pipeline in the United States, suffered a hacker attack from Russia, causing the system to be paralyzed. As of today (May 13), more than 70% of gas stations in Washington, DC are no longer available, while 71% of gas stations in North Carolina are out of service. In the severely affected South-eastern United States, more than 10,000 gas stations have been shut down, and it will take at least two weeks to resume supply. This incident caused the national oil price to rise by US$3.028, triggering panic buying of gasoline across the US. President Biden cited a report from the FBI as saying that he does not believe that the Russian government is behind the cyberattack, but believes that the hackers are related to Russia.

The number of new jobless claims in the United States continued to fall to 473,000 last week, the lowest since the pandemic last year. The market originally expected it to be 490,000, and the previous value was 507,000. During the period, the number of people who continued to apply for unemployment benefits decreased by 45,000 to 3.655 million. It reflects that the universal vaccination of the new crown vaccine, the relaxation of blockades in more states, and the Biden fiscal stimulus plan have further strengthened the pace of labour market recovery.